Pill Users Choose 'Wrong' Sex Partners
Women on Birth Control Pill May Be Attracted to 'Wrong' Sex Partner
Aug. 12, 2008 -- A woman is sexually attracted to men who smell like a good genetic match, but birth control pills make her desire the "wrong" men, a U.K. study shows.
Who is the right man? Studies suggest women are attracted to men whose genetic makeup differs from their own. Having a genetically different mate increases the chances for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby.
"If this really happens in the real world, women on the pill would end up choosing a more genetically similar mate than she would otherwise choose and the implications go on from there," study researcher S. Craig Roberts, PhD, tells WebMD.
Roberts notes that in an earlier U.S. study, women who were genetically similar to their partners reported being less satisfied in their sexual relationship with their partner -- and were seeking more new sex partners -- than were women with genetically dissimilar partners.
Animal studies show that female mammals can smell out males whose MHC genes are different from their own. MHC genes affect important immune responses. By mating with males who have different MHC genes, females give their offspring a better disease-fighting repertoire.
It's true of humans, too. In laboratory studies, women who sniff men's sweaty T-shirts find them more attractive when they come from men whose MHC genes don't match theirs. It's not that certain MHC genes smell better to women -- it's the difference that counts.
Rachel Herz, PhD, author of The Scent of Desire and a faculty member at Brown University, says there is a real connection between body odor, MHC, and the mates a woman chooses.
"My own research says the way a man smells to a woman is the main determinant of sexual attraction," Herz tells WebMD.
In earlier T-shirt-sniffing studies, women taking birth control pills seemed to be attracted to the "wrong" men. Intrigued, Roberts and colleagues took a closer look.
They paid 37 women to smell men's T-shirts before and after going on the pill. Then they compared the women's before- and after-pill ratings of the odors to those of 60 women who did not use oral contraceptives.